Vibrating shaver elements have been known for some time. Traditional electric razors, also known as dr shavers, are used without water or soap or shaving cream. Although such dry electric shavers provide a satisfactory shave many believe that the shave provided by an electric razor is not as close as a wet shave.
Wet shaves traditionally use water and soap or some kind of shave cream to soften the individual hairs of the beard of the user. The water and soap soften the individual hairs of the beard to make them much easier to cut. It would be desirable to combine the beard softening action of a wet shave with the oscillating cutting element of the traditional dry electric shaver.
There have been many attempts to provide an oscillating wet shaver none of which have been entirely satisfactory. Because the wet shave is used in an environment of water, it would be impractcial to plug them into an electrical outlet. Thus, the power source must be housed in the razor itself and should be battery powered. In the past, oscillating wet shavers have been bulky and uncomfortable to use because the battery and motor elements required for such an oscillating shaver tended to be larger than would fit within a traditional wet shave hand-held razor.
It would be desirable to design an oscillating wet shave razor that would accommodate miniaturized motors and batteries that are presently coming available. It would also be desirable to incorporate such miniaturized technology in a handle that provided the desired level of oscillation at the blades of the razors but at the same time reduces the vibration felt by the hand of the user.
Vibration at the surface of the razor blade cartridge is desirable because that vibration has a tendency to massage the skin and isolate the facial nerves from the discomforts of shaving. However, if a large amount of vibration were transmitted through the razor handle to the user's hand, those vibrations could interfere with the touch and feel of the razor.
It would also be desirable to take advantage of the vibrations to assist the blade cartridge in floating over the skin so that the blades would slide more easily over the skin.
It would also be desirable to balance the weight and the vibrations of the razor as a whole so that it would function as a finely crafted instrument having a relatively high vibration at those parts of the razor that interact with blade and a relatively low vibration at those parts of the razor handle that interact with the hand of the user.
It is also important that the mechanism for switching the power on and off be easy to use and conveniently incorporated into a razor.